Drug Lord (PC) review

"People like selling drugs.
That's a very easy conclusion to draw. I mean, look at all the popular games that involve drugs - Grand Theft Auto 3, Dope Wars, even Barbie on the old Nintendo Entertainment System. While the latter may not appear to be a drug game, you know the programmers had to be on something to make every single object in the game some form of pink."

People like selling drugs.

That's a very easy conclusion to draw. I mean, look at all the popular games that involve drugs - Grand Theft Auto 3, Dope Wars, even Barbie on the old Nintendo Entertainment System. While the latter may not appear to be a drug game, you know the programmers had to be on something to make every single object in the game some form of pink.

Drug Lord is the granddaddy of all the ''buy low, sell high, but it's drugs so that makes it extra cool'' games out currently, such as the aforementioned Dope Wars. However, despite being more than a decade old, Drug Lord manages to throughly thrash all other competitors. How is it that a game from 1991 offers more replay value and more options than newer games?

Unlike present games, the drugs offered are kept fairly simple. The drugs are all the same from city to city, although the prices do fluctuate; cocaine is cheap on the east coast, hallicogens (acid and crystal) are cheap on the west coast. Prices vary, but unless a major event occurs (a drug bust that drives prices up, a flood which drives prices down) they're somewhat stable depending on the city.

Also seperating itself from present games, there's far more ''extra'' events in Drug Lord. There's a lot more chances to buy guns, trenchcoats with extra pockets, or have gun fights with cops in alleys. It's a significant deal, since present games have a MUCH lower encounter rate. You're often stuck with the same trenchcoat and no guns for the entire game.

Drug Lord might not be for novice drug traders though. You don't start out with much, only fifteen hundred bucks, and unless you know what you're doing, you'll soon be in trouble with the loan shark. There's also random muggings which take away all your money, and the bank doesn't offer any interest. Some bank.

In terms of presentation value, Drug Lord is kept simple. It can be played on a VGA (sixteen color) monitor. The only sounds that the game have are faint beeps and blops, along with a police siren for when the bacon is on your case. The game is meant to run in DOS mode, however, it runs fine on just about any platform, in a convenient window. Gotta love it.

Overall, if you like trading drugs, or trading games in general, then Drug Lord could be the game for you. It offers more functions and features than the other drug trading games on the market.

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